1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a computer-human interface for quickly and easily retrieving desired information in a computer system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a universal interface which uses a plurality of heuristic algorithms to identify an item of information (e.g., document, application or Internet web page) in response to at least one information descriptor.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the basic needs of a computer user, especially with the recent growth in the amount of data and information available via networks and the Internet, is to be able to quickly search through the available information to identify useful items, and to thereafter easily locate those items. To satisfy this need, many computer operating systems contain routines that provide a simple way to locate objects. For example, the Finder of the Macintosh® Operating System implemented by Apple Computer, Inc. includes a Find File utility which permits a user to locate various files located in the system directories (e.g., folders) using keywords that occur in the desired file's name. The Find File utility includes the ability to search on local disks and mounted servers. The Windows® operating system, implemented by Microsoft Corporation, also employs a Find mechanism that allows a user to locate files stored in the computer system. The application uses inputted search criteria to generate and display a list of possible files that satisfy the search criteria. At times however, the list can become long and cumbersome, thereby requiring the user to sift through the list and identify useful information. Accordingly, this technique may fail to significantly reduce the time and effort a user expends to identify and retrieve useful information.
As another feature for quickly retrieving items of interest, some computer systems store a list of previously used documents or applications from which they can be easily invoked. However, this feature requires the user to access a different interface element to retrieve the item, and does not provide for the use of keywords to identify the specific document or program that the user desires.
Also, with the advent of the Internet, various specialized find routines have been developed that can be loaded into a computer's memory and launched in order to facilitate user requests for particular information on servers located throughout the world. Additionally, web browser applications enable a user to access worldwide websites and interact with search engines provided by the website.
Like the Find File utility discussed above, finding information on the Internet can prove frustrating because search criteria are often too broad. For example, when a keyword is entered, thousands of different web pages containing these keywords can be displayed in a list for a user to choose from. Accordingly, additional search criteria are needed to more effectively filter information available, for example, on the World Wide Web. However, there is little technology currently available which allows the computer to help the user determine such additional criteria or to automatically provide additional criteria, so that search results have a higher percentage of items that are of interest to the user.
Additionally, web-browser applications are not designed to search for non-web-based documents or applications located on the computer or an associated computer network and, conversely, File Find-type utility programs are not capable of searching the Internet for web-based documents or applications. There has been no combination of desktop find routines that presents a single interface and Internet browsing routines to allow a computer user to find a needed or desired item of information from among all different types of information storage systems. Additionally, there is no program which is able to process the user's input and then determine, using many different factors, including use of the Internet, the intent of the user as to the file to be retrieved. Accordingly, in order to present a more informative and personalized user interface, a unitary manner of finding a user's desired item of information is needed.